A three-year plan to revitalise industry, but also to defend the market and democracy
The president of Confindustria, Emanuele Orsini, rightly calls on the institutions, “the government and all political forces” to come up with a three-year industrial recovery plan in order to “unleash the potential of Italian companies” and pull the country out of an alarming state of crisis. It is necessary to be fully aware that “without industry there is no growth and social cohesion”. And so it is necessary to launch a cycle of decisions and public investments in the fields of energy, innovation, productivity and greater competitiveness of Italy and Europe in increasingly difficult markets and in scenarios dominated by geopolitical uncertainty, which now has a new leading actor: Trump’s USA, the same USA that was once an unshakeable and trustworthy friend and is now, instead, rather hostile towards the EU and major European countries.
Industrialists, Orsini adds, are ready to play their part by investing and improving the competitiveness of their companies, strengthening those sectors in which we have long demonstrated the strength of Made in Italy (mechanics and mechatronics, robotics, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, avionics and aerospace, shipbuilding, rubber and plastics, large infrastructures, as well as furniture, clothing and the agri-food industry). They are investing and innovating, demonstrating once again, in difficult times, their creativity, ingenuity, flexibility and long-term vision of the markets.
Of course, business is not omnipotent. It needs a positive context in which to operate. And that means medium-term decisions and actions by the government to ensure favourable conditions for companies in terms of energy prices, tax burdens (the IRES bonus decided by the government in the budget is fine, but it needs to broaden its scope and coverage), cutting red tape and improving the functioning of the labour market and training. Businesses would grow more if they could find the workers they need, so more graduates and degree holders and a better immigration management strategy are needed.
These are Issues we have long known about but they are still lacking adequate political answers. Industry 4.0, the most important industrial policy choice of the last decade, an essential lever for the dynamism of our manufacturing industry and the strength of our high-quality exports, is now as short of resources and prospects as ever. And Industry 5.0, which is supposed to facilitate the digital transformation of companies, is barely operational due to regulatory and bureaucratic mechanisms that prevent or slow down companies’ access.
In short: there is a production crisis (we talked about it in last week’s blog, complete with data and facts), but there are some very good actors in the field, enterprising and armed with good will and practical projects, but the conditions for recovery and reconstruction are worsening.
The need for an ambitious, long-term industrial policy obviously concerns not only Italy, but above all Germany, which is in a deep structural crisis, and more generally the whole of Europe. The tariff war started by Trump’s USA aggravates the situation. “Italy and Germany run the highest risks,” warns Bank of Italy Governor Fabio Panetta at Forex (La Stampa, 16 February): 1.5 points less global growth, although the worst impact in the medium term would be for the USA, -2%. And Emma Marcegaglia, former president of Confindustria, who as a steel producer already felt the weight of the tariffs during the first Trump presidency, fears new damage to everyone and calls for a strong reaction from Europe. That it helps companies to stay in the markets and, more generally, that it revives the values of an international player, the EU, which has been able to reconcile democracy, the market and welfare, in other words freedom, innovation and social inclusion. Governor Panetta insists: we need “a European pact for productivity” (Il Sole24Ore, 16 February).
Here is the pivotal point: what is needed is a Europe that, with astonishing political skill, steps out of the corner in which the USA, Russia and China, for different reasons, would like it to be, and asserts the strength and validity of an economic and political culture based on the economic values and practices I have just mentioned, and asserts its social capital of competitive democracy with strength and pride.
A project Europe, despite everything. And a courageous Europe that other parts of the world look to: firstly, the UK, but also several countries in the Mediterranean, Africa and the Americas themselves (the recent EU-Mercosur trade agreements are a good example).
In the words of Mario Draghi, the EU must stop imposing duties on itself, “internal barriers” that reduce innovation and productivity (la Repubblica, 16 February). And actually deliver good politics. How? Move towards a single market, starting with banking and finance, specifically to strengthen companies and their investments according to the robust innovation attitude in the strategic quality of manufacturing. And, finally, the launch of the formidable instrument of Eurobonds, European debt securities already considered essential by one of the most enlightened leaders Europe has ever had, Jacques Delors.
International financial markets have already shown that they regard the EU as a credible debtor. And the short-sightedness of the so-called “frugal” countries risks doing shocking damage not only to economies, but to European democracy itself. Ideological “frugality” is anything but a virtue in times of uncertainty and risk.
Eurobonds, then. To finance the 800 billion annual investments over a decade for environmental and digital transformation, as proposed by the Competitiveness Plan presented by Mario Draghi at the behest of the European Commission, a visionary and possible development path for Europe. For defence and the common army (finally overcoming the deficit of a Union that has the currency but not the sword). But also for innovation, technologies, artificial intelligence, training, the quality of social inclusion, projects, so that “Next Generation EU” is not just an acronym for post-Covid investment, but a real policy for a better future, in democracy and sustainable development, for our children and grandchildren. “Europe needs a CERN for artificial intelligence”, suggests Giorgio Parisi, Nobel Prize-winning physicist and mastermind of European “supercomputing” projects (Il Sole24Ore, 16 February).
Think big, in short, while the minimal thoughts of overbearing but culturally and value-driven egoism have gone too far. Think broadly in the face of the threat of nationalism, and try to be “that grain of sand lifted by the wind that sometimes stops a machine”, to borrow an intense and poetic expression from Norberto Bobbio, one of the greatest political philosophers of the 20th century. Think with social generosity in the face of fearful and socially sterile isolation. Think European.
Our history, despite the shadows that brood in the recesses of the darkness and horrors of the 20th century, gives us strength.
We must therefore quickly learn to “govern fragility“, as Roberto Garofoli and Bernardo Giorgio Mattarella suggest in a recent book published by Mondadori, in order to talk about “institutions, national security and competitiveness”. And to go “beyond fragility”, as Europe was able to do, for example, during the terrible period of the Covid pandemic, in terms of science, health culture and respect for human rights. A good Europe.
(Photo Getty Images)
The president of Confindustria, Emanuele Orsini, rightly calls on the institutions, “the government and all political forces” to come up with a three-year industrial recovery plan in order to “unleash the potential of Italian companies” and pull the country out of an alarming state of crisis. It is necessary to be fully aware that “without industry there is no growth and social cohesion”. And so it is necessary to launch a cycle of decisions and public investments in the fields of energy, innovation, productivity and greater competitiveness of Italy and Europe in increasingly difficult markets and in scenarios dominated by geopolitical uncertainty, which now has a new leading actor: Trump’s USA, the same USA that was once an unshakeable and trustworthy friend and is now, instead, rather hostile towards the EU and major European countries.
Industrialists, Orsini adds, are ready to play their part by investing and improving the competitiveness of their companies, strengthening those sectors in which we have long demonstrated the strength of Made in Italy (mechanics and mechatronics, robotics, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, avionics and aerospace, shipbuilding, rubber and plastics, large infrastructures, as well as furniture, clothing and the agri-food industry). They are investing and innovating, demonstrating once again, in difficult times, their creativity, ingenuity, flexibility and long-term vision of the markets.
Of course, business is not omnipotent. It needs a positive context in which to operate. And that means medium-term decisions and actions by the government to ensure favourable conditions for companies in terms of energy prices, tax burdens (the IRES bonus decided by the government in the budget is fine, but it needs to broaden its scope and coverage), cutting red tape and improving the functioning of the labour market and training. Businesses would grow more if they could find the workers they need, so more graduates and degree holders and a better immigration management strategy are needed.
These are Issues we have long known about but they are still lacking adequate political answers. Industry 4.0, the most important industrial policy choice of the last decade, an essential lever for the dynamism of our manufacturing industry and the strength of our high-quality exports, is now as short of resources and prospects as ever. And Industry 5.0, which is supposed to facilitate the digital transformation of companies, is barely operational due to regulatory and bureaucratic mechanisms that prevent or slow down companies’ access.
In short: there is a production crisis (we talked about it in last week’s blog, complete with data and facts), but there are some very good actors in the field, enterprising and armed with good will and practical projects, but the conditions for recovery and reconstruction are worsening.
The need for an ambitious, long-term industrial policy obviously concerns not only Italy, but above all Germany, which is in a deep structural crisis, and more generally the whole of Europe. The tariff war started by Trump’s USA aggravates the situation. “Italy and Germany run the highest risks,” warns Bank of Italy Governor Fabio Panetta at Forex (La Stampa, 16 February): 1.5 points less global growth, although the worst impact in the medium term would be for the USA, -2%. And Emma Marcegaglia, former president of Confindustria, who as a steel producer already felt the weight of the tariffs during the first Trump presidency, fears new damage to everyone and calls for a strong reaction from Europe. That it helps companies to stay in the markets and, more generally, that it revives the values of an international player, the EU, which has been able to reconcile democracy, the market and welfare, in other words freedom, innovation and social inclusion. Governor Panetta insists: we need “a European pact for productivity” (Il Sole24Ore, 16 February).
Here is the pivotal point: what is needed is a Europe that, with astonishing political skill, steps out of the corner in which the USA, Russia and China, for different reasons, would like it to be, and asserts the strength and validity of an economic and political culture based on the economic values and practices I have just mentioned, and asserts its social capital of competitive democracy with strength and pride.
A project Europe, despite everything. And a courageous Europe that other parts of the world look to: firstly, the UK, but also several countries in the Mediterranean, Africa and the Americas themselves (the recent EU-Mercosur trade agreements are a good example).
In the words of Mario Draghi, the EU must stop imposing duties on itself, “internal barriers” that reduce innovation and productivity (la Repubblica, 16 February). And actually deliver good politics. How? Move towards a single market, starting with banking and finance, specifically to strengthen companies and their investments according to the robust innovation attitude in the strategic quality of manufacturing. And, finally, the launch of the formidable instrument of Eurobonds, European debt securities already considered essential by one of the most enlightened leaders Europe has ever had, Jacques Delors.
International financial markets have already shown that they regard the EU as a credible debtor. And the short-sightedness of the so-called “frugal” countries risks doing shocking damage not only to economies, but to European democracy itself. Ideological “frugality” is anything but a virtue in times of uncertainty and risk.
Eurobonds, then. To finance the 800 billion annual investments over a decade for environmental and digital transformation, as proposed by the Competitiveness Plan presented by Mario Draghi at the behest of the European Commission, a visionary and possible development path for Europe. For defence and the common army (finally overcoming the deficit of a Union that has the currency but not the sword). But also for innovation, technologies, artificial intelligence, training, the quality of social inclusion, projects, so that “Next Generation EU” is not just an acronym for post-Covid investment, but a real policy for a better future, in democracy and sustainable development, for our children and grandchildren. “Europe needs a CERN for artificial intelligence”, suggests Giorgio Parisi, Nobel Prize-winning physicist and mastermind of European “supercomputing” projects (Il Sole24Ore, 16 February).
Think big, in short, while the minimal thoughts of overbearing but culturally and value-driven egoism have gone too far. Think broadly in the face of the threat of nationalism, and try to be “that grain of sand lifted by the wind that sometimes stops a machine”, to borrow an intense and poetic expression from Norberto Bobbio, one of the greatest political philosophers of the 20th century. Think with social generosity in the face of fearful and socially sterile isolation. Think European.
Our history, despite the shadows that brood in the recesses of the darkness and horrors of the 20th century, gives us strength.
We must therefore quickly learn to “govern fragility“, as Roberto Garofoli and Bernardo Giorgio Mattarella suggest in a recent book published by Mondadori, in order to talk about “institutions, national security and competitiveness”. And to go “beyond fragility”, as Europe was able to do, for example, during the terrible period of the Covid pandemic, in terms of science, health culture and respect for human rights. A good Europe.
(Photo Getty Images)